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(my friend Sam)

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(a place to share secrets)

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(My friend, Tracey)

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Oct. 20, 2006

School photos are in and, of course, my children are adorable. I recall my own tragic school photos. I was a skinny, gangly youth with a big shock of brown hair and perpetually crooked eyeglasses. But I didn't care until around freshman year when I received what has to be the worst photo ever taken of me. I'm still not sure what happened. That was the first year I recall not actually buying any photos because they were just too, too awful. I don't even have one to post or I would.

And it's easy to dismiss someone's opinion of their own photo. I recall my buddy Jim at the time looked at that photo and said "I don't see anything wrong with it" and I wanted to hit him. I knew he was just being polite because I looked like a before photo for "Exreme Make Over: Nerd Edition."

Max's photo is actually very nice. He asked to wear a tie that day and, though his teeth are a bit too large for his head at this point, he'll grow into them.

For some reason, Rozzy's school likes to pose the kids in a pumpkin patch. The result is a wallet sized photo that is a full-body shot. That's all well and good, but it makes it difficult to see her face, which, let's face it, is the whole point of school photos.

There she is among the guords, squash and flowers -- a helmet of hair perched on her head. You wonder where she gets the idea that she's a princess. As for her hair, she gets lots of compliments on it. Strangers will stop her when we're out to say how much they like her hair.

Lately, she's taken to rolling her eyes at me when I ask her to do things. She's decided she knows best. This morning, Dollie asked me to help her with her jacket. I went to her room, grabbed her jacket off her bed and brought it the kitchen. Rozzy was on the floor with a toy catalog circling everything pink. I told her to get up and put her jacket on. She looked at me, rolled her eyes and said she didn't want to wear that jacket.

"Fine," I said and went back to her closet and pulled out a bulky plaid fleece pullover that was a hand-me-down from Max. This was the least girly thing I could find in her closet. When she saw it, she crooked her mouth and was just about to say something when I grabbed her and forced it over her head. It swallowed her. She didn't like it, but knew not to complain.

Tennessee will get the chance to vote on a gay marriage resolution on Nov. 7. I've read the arguments on both sides. I remain unconvinced that allowing two men or two women to marry will somehow invalidate my own marriage. I'm also unmoved by the religious connotations because marriage is a state-sponsored institution, not a religious one. That's also why the federal Defense of Marriage Act was such a travesty. Conservatives claim to be for smaller government and the rights of states to govern themselves and yet throw hundreds of years of tradition overboard when it suits them.

The thing is that even if the resolution passes, it will have no affect on who anyone falls in love with, establishes a lasting relationship with or commits to. It just keeps gay people from being able to enjoy the same financial and healthcare securities that straight people get. It's not special rights for gays. It's equal rights.

Take, as a somewhat unfortunate example, former Congressman Gerry Studds. He was the first openly gay member of congress and was involved in his own page scandal nearly 30 years ago. When Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, he and his partner got married. Studds died and now the federal government will not give his husband federal death benefits because the DOMA will not allow the federal government to recognize his legal marriage. Had Studds married a woman, she would have been entitled to part of his $144,000 annual pension. But because of who he loved, his husband gets nothing.

Is that equality? No.

The Tennessean this morning ran a story about a recent study that shows the number of gay couples in the state has risen by 33 percent between 2000 and 2005. These are, for the most part, professional couples with no children and lots of disposable income -- meaning they are a desirable market for businesses and a significant addition to the local economy. They pay taxes, shop locally and should enjoy all the benefits that every other Tennessee resident enjoys.

On top of this, the Census Bureau's American Communities Survey shows that single-headed households (that is households headed by single people, divorced or never married) are now the majority, making up 50.3 percent of households in America. If you are looking for the culprit in any attack on traditional marriage, it is divorce.

So far, 17 states have altered their constitutions to ban gay marriage. But only four states: Indianna, Kansas, Nevada and Oklahoma do not allow for no-fault divorce. In 13 states, no-fault divorce can be the sole grounds, meaning a married couple can split up for no reason whatsoever. More than anything else, that fact demonstrates how the government and it's people truly feel about traditional marriage. Where are the calls for resolutions to end no-fault divorce? If protecting marriage is your goal, then attack the people and governments treating marriage as a temporary agreement that can be rescinded on a whim. Why discriminate against people who want to be married?

There is a church in Murfreesboro that is on my way home. On the sign out front, it urges people to vote "yes" on the resolution to "save traditional marriage." Voting "yes" or "no" will not change heterosexual marriage one iota. Voting "yes" is a vote for discrimination, narrowmindedness, shortsightedness and intolerance.

I'll be voting "no."

I haven't heard too much out of the Corker camp in the last couple of days. The Ford campaign has been trying to link him to the failed attempt to create a state income tax (he was Gov. Sundquist's commissioner of finance and administration during the creation of the plan). Ford believes Corker may have actually written the proposal, but at any rate never came out against it.

Corker's camp fired back that Ford is campaigning with Democrats who supported the income tax.

But Corker's flip-flop on "stay-the -course" is understandable when you realize that last summer, Bush and Rove sent word to Republican candidates that the best way to win would be to run on the Iraq war and frame the debate as "stay the course" versus "cut and run." That has turned out not to be such a good idea.

The House Appropriations committee hired 800 new investigators to cover all the corruption probes going on in the Congress. The chair of the committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) himself under investigation as part of the Duke Cunningham probe, has fired them all, effectively stunting any further investigation of Republicans.

Slate has a nice piece on Weird Al today. Troubadork.

Scientist develop cloaking technology.

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Oct. 19, 2006

Rozzy's preschool is having an open house tomorrow. Each classroom is decorated as a different country. Rozzy's class is going to be Mexico. Dollie pulled some decorations and props from the school and took them over. Among them, were some costume pieces for Rozzy.

Yesterday morning, shortly after the alarm went off, Dollie got up to shower and, as is my habit, I stayed in bed for about six more minutes before getting up to make the kids' breakfast. As I rolled over to continue my snooze, I hear the faintest whisper from the side of the bed.

"Papa, I wanna snuggle." It is Rozzy. She wants to climb into the warm bed and "snuggle" which consists of wiggling, kicking, whispering and not letting me sleep. I open one eye and look at her. In the dark, I see her thick mane of hair, all wild from bed head, jammed under a huge sombrero.

"Nice sombrero," I said.

"It's a hat from Mexico," she replied.

"It's called a sombrero," I said.

"It's called a hat from Mexico," she replied.

Oy.

It is getting close to Halloween and my kids are getting excited. This year, Dolls and I took the precaution of buying candy neither of us could stand. That way, we won't be tempted to eat it before the big day. We bought a huge bag of "gummi" food: gummi hamburgers, gummi hotdogs, gummi fries, gummi cola -- some are sweet, some are sour and they're all terribly disturbing.

Rozzy will be a princess this year. Rather than wear one of the half dozen princess dresses already in her closet, she insisted on buying a new one. She's such a little girly girl.

Max has chosen Darth Vader. We went to Party City because they had the best price on a Vader costume. They have a rather complicated Halloween buying process. You find a picture of what you want on the wall, note the number and size, get in line, ask a sales person to fetch it for you, check out up front.

As Max and I stood in line, the three boys ahead of us, ranging in age from about 6 to 10, all bought the same costume. Personally, I don't see the appeal, but I'm not a little boy anymore.

So we got Max's Darth Vader costumer, picked up a light saber (with a red blade, Max insisted) and got out of dodge. It has been the devil's own task keeping him out of that costume since. He enjoys putting on the Darth Vader mask and pretending to choke me using the Force. My fault for showing how to hold his fingers the right way.

As he flailed around with his light saber, I brought up what I thought was the most salient of points.

"How are you going to carry that around and still hold your candy bag?" That turned him white, dinnit?

Bush 41's former Secretary of State James Baker has headed up a bi-partisan committee to make recomendations on what to do about Iraq. The report is complete, but is being held until after the election to "keep from politicizing" the results.

You can bet that if the results were "stay the course, Georgie Boy" we'd be hearing about it. Instead, the executive summary has been leaked and it doesn't look good for Bush.

The group is said to have ruled out any option that Bush could remotely call "victory" saying that there are just a few months left to change strategies before the entire country spirals out of control. Bush has declared that there will be no changes until after the elections. Even then, he may decide to ignore the report. It won't be the first time.

But if Bush has already decided that he's going to change tactics -- either a staged withdrawal or opening up talks with Syria and Iran -- then why wait until after the elections? The soldiers that die between now and Nov. 7 are literally dying for a lost cause.

I'm remined of the original Armistice with Germany. The negotiators thought it would be oh, so clever to declare an end to the war at 11 a.m. Paris time on November 11. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The AEF knew for two days that the fighting was going to end and got the word officially that morning at 5 a.m., but commaders sent soldiers into battle anyway. The Allies lost 3,500 troops that day. American soldiers were ordered to push up the hill for their final battle at 10:30 a.m.

Every day, every hour, every second we stay in this useless, ill-conceived and incompetantly prosecuted war, we lose. We lose soldiers, we lose civilians, we lose international stature, we lose money, we lose time, we lose hope, we just lose.

The Big Dog had a few things to say yesterday. He layed out the difference between Democrats and Republcans. While Democrats believe that government and power should be used for the common good, as for Republicans:

"They believe the country is best served by the maximum concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the right people -- right in both senses," he said.

"They favor unilateralism whenever possible and cooperation when it's unavoidable," he added

He said the philosophy did not serve the country well.

"If you've got an ideology, you've already got your mind made up. You know all the answers and that makes evidence irrelevant and arguments a waste of time," he said.

Sen. Rick Santorum is just dumb. I can't think of any better way to put it. He's behind in the polls, likely to lose his seat and now he's just spewing stupidity all over the field. Take his latest quip. Evidently, he's a big "Lord of the Rings" fan (I assume the movies, I can't see him wading through the books). So, to illustrate the administration's flypaper strategy in Iraq, Santorum turns to Tolkein:

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

“It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.,” Santorum continued. “You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”

I would remind Santorum that the 9/11 attacks were completed with 19 hijackers. You think al Queda can't spare 20 people from the war in Iraq to carry out another attack?

We may be looking at another Republican page scandal. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) has had allegations about him brought before the ethics committee. Kolbe has admitted publically to offering his D.C. townhouse to pages when they come to town and taking several on a camping trip several years ago.

But the allegation before the ethics committee now involves an incident that happened five years ago when the former page in question was 16. He alleges that Kolbe had inappropriate and uncomfortable physical contact with him when they were alone together.

Kolbe, who is the only openly gay Republican in Congress is retiring this year. Everything is hearsay and allegations so far, but the GOP can't be happy about any of it.

Meanwhile, ABC News reports that the FBI hasn't found any evidence that Foley had actual sexual contact with anyone under 18.

Rumors are running about the blogosphere that another Republican is going to fall -- this one for having sex with underage female pages. It may mean another House seat pickup for Dems in Illinois.

Speaking of unhappy Republicans, Katherine Harris is about $5 million behind in the fundraising raise to become Florida's next senator. She says to prove she's committed, she's going to sell her D.C. house. Harris has proven over and over that she can get publicity and if all it took to get elected in this country was to have your name in the paper, then she'd be golden.

But that's not the way it works. As an aside, I heard recently that her nickname among the wags is "Pink Sugar."

In California, a large mailing went out in Spanish containing the following message:

"You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

The fact is that legal immigrants and naturalized citizens can vote. This is a classic dirty trick to supress the turnout in Hispanic districts. The attorney general in Santa Ana, Calif. has traced the source of the mailing to a Republican campaign.

Here's the kicker: the Republican involved is an immigrant.

Ben Affleck is a drunken cheat. Who knew?

From the "hope springs eternal" department, John McCain jokes that if the Dems win the midterms, he'll commit suicide.

Sara Evans, soon-to-be ex husband and alleged pervert gave a bunch of money to Sen. Allen (R-Macaca). The divorce filing says that the alleged pervert watched porn on all three of the family computers and the family TV (that was the incident when he got caught by one of his kids). He advertises on Craig's List for three-ways and anal sex -- however, just to add to the hypocrisy factor -- he refused to let Evan's costume designer for "Dancing With The Stars" into their home because he was a "soddomite."

I received my second follow up call from the local Baptist megachurch. In it, he said he wasn't going to call again because he didn't want to bother me. Then he finished by saying he might stop by the house one more time.

Man, I am so tired of hearing self-righteous so-called religious leaders claim that, because I'm a liberal, I hate this country or I want the terrorists to win. I'm looking at you, Dobson.

What kills me is that I have several relatives who regularly listen to Dobson's radio program. I have to wonder if they really believe him when he tells them people like me despise America and it's freedoms. It's ridiculous on the face of it, I know, but Dobson didn't get to be leader of an influencial conservative Christian group without being able to convince people he was right. Furthermore, he claims Focus on the Family isn't political, but tells his listeners they'd better vote Republican or America will be lost. Sheesh.

Answer me this. I've seen dozens of coaches interviewed before big games. When sports reporters ask the inevitable questions about strategy, the reponses can be lame, but you generally here something akin to a strategy.

"Well, we're going to try to keep the ball on the ground and avoid their blitz."

"We're going to use a combination of zone and man-to-man to shut down their passing lanes."

"Hit 'em where they ain't."

When asking about strategy, the resonse should be in the form of some action you're going to take: tactics, an overall plan, something that shows you understand the question.

Last week, Tony Snow was asked if we were winning in Iraq and he said "We're making progress. I don't konw. How do you define winning?"

This week, he was asked if the sudden increase in troop deaths might force Bush to reconsider his plans. Tony's response was "No. His strategy is to win."

Now go back to the hypothetical coach interview.

"What's your strategy for the big game?"

"To win."

"Ha, ha. Good one. No really. What's your strategy?"

Want proof of the desperation coming out of the GOP? I give you House Majority Whip Roy Blunt:

With the prospects of a Democratic takeover becoming more real to voters, Republicans have begun rallying their demoralized base and fence-sitters with visions of tax increases, liberal social policies and weakness on national security if the opposition controls Congress. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, yesterday sent an email to the media suggesting House Democrats would "plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes and minimize penalties for crack dealers."

Olberman is calling Bush a liar, because, you know, he is.

"These military commissions will provide a fair trial," you told us yesterday, Mr. Bush. "In which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney, and can hear all the evidence against them."

'Presumed innocent,' Mr. Bush?

The very piece of paper you signed as you said that, allows for the detainees to be abused up to the point just before they sustain "serious mental and physical trauma" in the hope of getting them to incriminate themselves, and may no longer even invoke The Geneva Conventions in their own defense.

'Access to an attorney,' Mr. Bush?

Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift said on this program, Sir, and to the Supreme Court, that he was only granted access to his detainee defendant, on the promise that the detainee would plead guilty.

'Hearing all the evidence,' Mr. Bush?

The Military Commissions act specifically permits the introduction of classified evidence not made available to the defense.

Your words are lies, Sir.

They are lies, that imperil us all

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Oct. 13, 2006

Happy Friday the 13th for any of you out there who believe in that sort of thing.

There's an interesting story in the WaPo today about Bush. Some folks have taken a look at his public statements since taking office and have found a weird pattern. It seems that as his second term nears an end and he's finding his influence ebbing, he is declaring more and more things "unacceptable."

In the first nine months of this year, Bush declared more than twice as many events or outcomes "unacceptable" or "not acceptable" as he did in all of 2005, and nearly four times as many as he did in 2004. He is, in fact, at a presidential career high in denouncing events he considers intolerable. They number 37 so far this year, as opposed to five in 2003, 18 in 2002 and 14 in 2001.

Through a spokesman and then in a televised statement, he declared North Korea's claimed nuclear test "unacceptable" before and after it occurred Oct. 9. But he could also be heard on Jan. 9 lecturing students at an elementary school in Glen Burnie, Md., that their recent scores on math and reading proficiency tests were "unacceptable."

Having a president call something "unacceptable" is not the same as having him order U.S. troops into action. But foreign policy experts say the word is one of the strongest any leader can deploy, since it both broadcasts a national position and conveys an implicit threat to take action if his warnings are disregarded.

What's disturbing to me is that, while more and more things are labled "unacceptable," Bush isn't taking any action to correct any of it. The result is a lame duck that is lamer than one would expect.

"That's unacceptable!"

"And?"

"Well . . . carry on, then."

You can hear his frustrations in his public speeches. The same old phrases aren't working for him anymore and he's hard-pressed to say anything that is significant or relevant. When a president loses his relevancy, he's not left with much else but bluster.

That's why he's upped his rhetoric against Democrats on the stump. He makes outrageous claims such as Democrats don't want to defend America or Democrats are going to "wave the white flag of surrender" in the war on terror. He can't actually point to any Democrat that has made any statements close to what he's ascribing to them.

Meanwhile, the news gets worse, more books come out and Bush finds more and more situations intolerable.

My brother Dan is a big Corker backer. He sends me text messages declaring that Corker is going to win in a landslide. Corker has the best message. Corker has the best ads. Corker is going to beat Ford's eyes shut.

In a recent SMS exchange, he asked how I could vote for a man who wasn't "from here." I asked where he thought Ford was from and he replied Pennsylvania. Now I'm not clear what constitutes being "from here" in my brother's eyes, but Ford was born in Memphis. As the son of a congressman, he went to school in D.C. and college in Philadelphia.

Corker was born in North Carolina. Heck, Dan was born in Birmingham, Alabama.

The only requirements for running for senate are to be a U.S. citizen for 9 years, at least 30 years old and a citizen of the state that will elect you.

Ford and Corker are both qualified to run. It will be a tight race and some analyists are saying that the results of Tennessee could determine who gets control of Congress.

Today, both candidates are playing host to national figures to help boost their campaigns. Ford is bringing in the AFL-CIO President John Sweeney who is going to address a Nashville labor rally. Corker is bringing in RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman to attend a barbecue in Franklin.

And so falls another seat. Republican Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and making false statements in connection with the Abramhoff investigation. In true Republican form, however, he will not resign his seat for another few weeks. Word is he needs the federal paycheck.

Meanwhile the Abramhoff scandal may start bringing down conservative non-profits, including Grover Norquist's Americans For Tax Reform.

Yet another theory about Foley emerges. It is a "dirty trick" by a bunch of closeted gay Republicans who are secretly Democrats wanting to bring down the Republican Party from the inside. Yeah, that's the ticket.

This jerk believes that the Republicans brought in these "closeted Democrats" and put them into positions of power. Then they formed a velvet mafia inwhich they were able to share inside information about Republican personal lives and spring it on the media in an instant.

His proof for his idea that all gay Republicans are actually Dems in Republican clothing is that they all seem to support gay causes. Evidently, a real Republican would either not be gay or would hate himself so much that he would fight against gay causes.

Some in the gay community have wondered aloud if the Foley scandal is going to lead to a purge of gays Republicans. While that would be an interesting sideshow, it completely misses the point that the Foley scandal isn't a gay scandal. It is an ephebophilia scandal. Yeah, I had to look it up, too.

If the GOP starts outing and purging gay staffers though, they may find themselves looking to fill some pretty big shoes.

Dollie watches "Dancing With The Stars" so I am exposed to it without being an actual observer. I watched Tucker Carlson's terrible performance and much-deserved booting. I've seen Emmit Smith and Jerry Rice strut their respective stuff.

My favorite this season (if you could call it a favorite) is Sara Evans. This is mostly due to the fact that she is, as the kids say, teh hawt. Then a couple of things happened:

Tom DeLay endorsed her, saying Republicans should vote for her to "send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television.''

She filed for divorce and quit the show. It turns out her husband, Craig Schelske, a Republican candiate for congress in 2004, was verbally abusive, drank to excess and watched pornography in front of their young children.

According to the document filed in chancery court, Schelske allegedly has on his computer at least 100 photographs of himself posing in an aroused state. There are several photographs of him having sex with other women, the filings stated.

The story goes on to say that he was trolling Craig's List for sexual partners, checking out ads for anal sex and three-ways. Just last year, she told CMT how she keeps their marriage together by keeping herself in shape and offering herself for his pleasure:

It's most important to keep marriage and family together. I am a child of divorce, and it's devastating. I have a 12-year marriage. And the way I see it, the way to an amazing marriage is having sex ... lots of sex. Sex keeps the marriage young. And a woman should maintain herself for her husband and stay attractive. I like to put the kids to bed, have a glass of wine on the patio or by the fireplace, and I ask Craig, 'What do you need of me?'

So here's a Republican candidate and activist with a beautiful, successful wife who offers herself up to him all the time and he's trolling for anal sex partners and three-ways while watching porn in front of his babies. Classy.

Shawtna McBride is 31 years old. She was recently arrested for five counts of bigomy and false swearing. It seems that since 2004, she's married five differnt men without divorcing her first husband. Wow. There's a line from an old Tim Wilson song about all these truths his uncle gave him before dying. One of them was:

Been married five times? Well maybe it's you.

It has been several weeks since I've set foot in a Wal-Mart. So far, they seem to be surviving without my support. However, A Pennsylvania jury just ordered the company to pay $78 million to workers who sued over being forced to work off the clock and during breaks.

At the University of Southern Illinois, every issue of the student newspaper was stolen out of the racks in protest of a front page photo of a lesbian couple inwhich a naked breast was shown. I don't attend, USI. I've never read their paper. But I've seen the image in question.

How? Because the protesting group, the USI College Republicans, posted the image on their website.

So let's be clear. The newspaper was wrong to publish that dirty, dirty photo in a forum where literally hundreds of college kids might see a booby, so we're going to post it in a forum where millions can see how awful it is.

I'm reminded of the old joke about the guy who walks into his house with a big handful of dog crap and says "hey, look what I almost stepped in!"

Here's a girl that has just earned herself a little something extra in her pay envelope.

The baby sitter did not want her name revealed and could not be reached for comment. She was baby-sitting for her sister, Becky Henslee.

Henslee said her 3-year-old daughter Brooklyn and twin 2-year-old sons Cleo and Charles were playing in the backyard of their home on the Canadian border early last week when Brooklyn alerted their aunt by shouting "Bear! Bear!"

Henslee said her sister looked up and saw the bear running out of the woods toward the backyard. She grabbed the three children from the yard and ran inside the house, shutting the door.

After taking the children into a bedroom, the woman loaded a 7mm hunting rifle and returned to the back door, where the bear had pawed the screen door and broken the door frame.

When the bear looked away from the door, Henslee said her sister opened the door slightly and shot twice, killing the bear instantly.

Henslee said her sister had a valid Idaho bear hunting tag.

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Oct. 12, 2006

I got the first of what will most likely be many follow-up calls from one of the two gentlemen that came by from a local megachurch. Not recognizing the number, Dollie didn't answer the phone, so I got to hear the message. He said he wanted to call and see if I'd gotten the chance to read the tracts he'd left with me and to answer any questions I might have. He invited me to call him back and talk to him about whatever I wanted and assured me he wouldn't be calling me back a lot.

"Maybe just one more time," he said. We'll see.

I told a coworker about the visit and subsequent call. She was quiet and I knew why.

"I can see it in your eyes," I said. "You're conflicted because, on the one hand, you think I need churchin' up, but on the other hand, you'd hate it if strangers came to your house unannounced and then started calling you on the phone."

"You're right," she said. "You read me like a book."

"Like a primer," I said.

More bad news for Corker. The Chattanooga Times Free Press is reporting that, while mayor, Corker had the city pension fund invest $1 million with a company that Corker had a relationship with, without disclosing it.

The New Republic is reporting that it wasn't just Reynolds pressuring Mark Foley to run in the upcoming election even after finding out about inappropriate emails to pages. Foley was ready to give up his seat six months ago, but Karl Rove let it be known that do so would damage his post-congressional lobbying career.

They were so worried about losing the House, they were willing to look the other way while a sexual predator stalked the teenagers roaming the Capitol.

A new book out by former Bush special assistant in the Office of Community and Faith-based Initiatives David Kuo says that Bush and the political operation in the White House are just using Christian conservatives.

He says some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes.

More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

So here we go again -- another book by a former Bush official that claims the Bush White House was corrupt, inept or overtly political. This will prompt yet another denial, by Tony Snow. Has there been any former administration officials who have written any books about how great things are in Bushland?

Aside from that, this will not sit well with Christian conservatives. Kuo is one of their own. He quit the Bush White House when he realized that they were mocking the faithful and that Bush didn't really care about his own so-call "compassion agenda." If this was a book by a liberal bombthrower, they could ignore it, but Kuo has bone fides.

An excellent article in Slate about how John McCain was dead wrong about the Clinton policy toward North Korea.

"Smith" a new show I've been watching on CBS has been canceled. It happens every season, I choose a new show, get involved, it gets canceled. My record for picking successful series is extremely poor. Usually, however, they last longer than two episodes.

"But, Mike," you're thinking. "How can you get emotionally attached to a show that's only been on for two episodes?" You can't. But you can enjoy the powerful acting work of Ray Liotta. You can feel the build up into something really interesting. But, alas, it was not meant to be.

Coke is looking to launch a new bevy later this year. It's a carbonated green tea that will actually burn calories. It's a negative calorie beverage. Hmmmm.

Another article about the guy who was arrested for "assaulting" Cheney by telling him his policies in Iraq were reprehensible.

Brad DeLong has an interesting comment about a recent Bush speech:

The Bush Administration Clown Show

Yes, it is George W. Bush once again in the center ring with the funny nose and the big shoes:

President Bush Discusses the Economy and Budget:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Good afternoon. Thanks for coming to the White House. In 2004, I made a promise to the American people, we would cut the federal budget deficit in half over five years. Today I'm pleased to report that we have achieved this goal, and we've done it three years ahead of schedule.

This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th.* [sic] These numbers show that the budget deficit has been reduced to $248 billion and is down to just 1.9 percent of the economy...

Should we say that the 2004 budget deficit was $412.7 billion, and that half of that would be $206.3 billion--not $248 billion? Should we say that the fiscal year ends in September, not February? Should we say that February never has 30 days? Should we say that February never had--not even before Julius Caesar--30 days?

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Oct. 11, 2006

Another day, another bad news story about Corker. It seems he's got a Frist problem (well, if you count that Frist is currently campaigning with him, he's got two). The blind trust Corker set up while he was mayor of Chattanooga to shield himself from conflicts of interest was not as "blind" as he led folks to believe.

Corker met often with employees from his private companies while mayor from 2001 to 2005, and he shared business tips with others. Corker also got help organizing his 2001 mayoral campaign from City Hall, where a government secretary passed on voting lists and set up meetings for the millionaire commercial real estate developer.

These details appear among thousands of Chattanooga city e-mails documenting Corker's tenure as mayor. City officials reported this summer that Corker's e-mails had disappeared, yet many of his electronic notes survived in e-mail files of his executive assistant, Shirley Pond.

Corker says he's sold everything now, so he can run for Senate with a clean slate, but the story is as much about his ethics as it is his finances.

This morning in the White House Rose Garden, Bush claimed that the bilateral talks with North Korea under the Clinton Administration "didn't work." In a recent interview John McCain called the Clinton policies toward North Korea a "failure."

But what he seems to forget is that under Clinton, North Korea didn't have nuclear weapons, signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, was not processing plutonium and had a transparent system for verification. Negotiations were going so well that when Bush first came into office, Sec. of State Colin Powell said he would continue with them. The next day, Bush came out and said no, we wouldn't.

Bush ended talks, called Kim Jong Il evil, refused to engage in diplomacy, put North Korea in the "axis of evil." As a result, North Korea kicked the inspectors out, withdrew from the nonproliferation treaty and, in the six years Bush has been in charge, increased their weapons-grade plutonium supplies 12-fold -- all with no oversight.

I don't understand this notion by Republicans that simply sitting down at a table and talking to our enemies is somehow a sign of weakness. We can't talk to Iran, we can't talk to North Korea. Why? Because they believe that the first response to any threat should be to bomb and invade. That's Cheney's one-percent doctrine in action.

Clinton's policies in North Korea were working. Bush ended them because he came into the White House with the attitude that anything with Clinton's name on it was bad. Now Republicans are trying to rewrite history and blame Kim Jong Il's actions over the last six years of Bush's administration on Clinton. It won't fly.

And hey, where did the North Koreans get plans for a nuclear bomb anyway? Could it have been our "allies" in Pakistan?

Man, I want to go to this museum. They've installed the largest slide in the country. The artist believes that slides are an efficient, economical way to get from place to place within a building and he's demonstrating it with a giant slide in which you'll hit 30 mph. Coooool.

Holler made a giant slide at the headquarters of fashion company Prada connecting its boss Miuccia Prada's personal office to her car.

The new season of "Battlestar Galactica" is some grim, grim television. What's really amazing is how the writers have managed to flip the current political situation in the U.S. on it's head. The humans that decided to settle on New Caprica have been invaded and are currently occupied by Cylons. The Cylons are monotheists who have propped up the local corrupt government. They dictate policies to the president, they train human "police" to patrol the encampments and drag people out of their homes in the night.

The humans are polytheists who are rebelling against the occupiers. People are detained in prisons indefinately without due process and tortured. The human insurgents have taken to using terrorist tactics to disrupt the Cylons, including suicide bombings. It's creepy, yet fascinating television.

It is an incredibly superior series to the original.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Scandals in Washington inwhich the players come out in front of the story and tell all tend to peter out in a news cycle or two. But the coverups and the lies and the conflicting stories lead to a daily drip, drip, drip of information that keeps the media focused on the same thing for weeks at a time. Thus it is with the Foley scandal.

Hastert held yet another news conference yesterday saying if his staff kept this from him, they'll get fired.

Hastert also managed to contradict yet another member of congress regarding what he knew about Foley.

Today, ABC is reporting that Foley visited the Page dorms in 2000 (not just in 2003 as previously reported).

But too many in the GOP just don't seem to "get it." Christopher Shays (R-CT) defended Hastert yesterday by calling Ted Kennedy a murderer.

Republican Rep. Christopher Shays defended the House speaker's handling of a congressional page scandal, saying no one died like at Chappaquiddick in 1969 when Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy was involved. "I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," the embattled Connecticut congressman told The Hartford Courant in remarks published Wednesday.

"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added.

Tucker Carlson on Chris Mathews Show:

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in ...

MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. they live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right. It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out.

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Oct. 10, 2006

For about a year now, I've had one of those ribbon-shaped magnets on the back of my car. I bought it as a joke because so many people put those yellow ribbons on their car as if buying a magnet, made in some Chinese factory, is supporting the troops in any real way.

This one struck me as really funny, so I stuck it on my car and didn't think much more about it. A few of my friends have commented on it. I've seen some people behind me point and laugh. Like I said, I've had it for almost a year now and havea pretty much forgotten about it.

Today it was stolen.

It was on my car last Friday when I left work because I remember seeing it. My car has been parked at home all weekend as well as yesterday (as I was home sick).

Today, when I went outside to take some packages to the post office, I noticed it was gone. It had to have happened today.

Now, what has changed around my office recently that may have prompted someone to steal my magnet? Well, we've gotten some new neighbors. Bob Corker's campaign has moved into the building. The parking lot has filled with cars sporting Corker stickers. Several offices around the building have newly posted Corker signs. Mine is the only car in the lot with a Harold Ford Jr. sticker on the bumper.

I'm not saying it was a thieving Corker campaign worker that stole my magnet. I'm just saying that the only thing that's changed around here is an influx of Republican campaign workers. And whenever someone's freedom of expression has been attacked or suppressed, a Republican has been behind it.

Take from that what you will. But I tell you this. I'm through parking in the back of the building. Tomorrow and from now on until the midterm elections, I'm parking right by the door where all these Corker workers can see my Ford sticker when they shuffle inside.

An interesting and somewhat snide aside. The campaign workers I've seen come in two varieties: hot women in business suits and really fat guys in polo shirts and khaki pants. It's like they're auditioning for a sitcom or something.

Speaking of really fat guys, It's been about three weeks since I began counting Weight Watchers points and I've lost 11 pounds. Four more pounds and I lose two of my alotted points for the day. It will be a bittersweet moment.

This hasn't been a hard as I would have thought. I manage to get in a pizza on Friday nights and stay within my alotted points. I've eaten more baked potatoes and popped more low-fat popcorn than I ever thought possible.

My biggest point burner seems to be Cokes. A can of Coke is 3 points. I'm alotted 26 a day, plus an extra 35 per week to spread out however I like. I've been spending about a third of my daily points on Cokes. I tried Diet Cokes, but I can't take the chemical aftertaste.

I switched to the tiny 100-calorie cans which are 2 points. I also picked up some cans of Coke 2, which are a point apiece.

Mostly, though, I'm changing my habits. I'm not constantly snacking. I'm not over eating at every meal. I'm not eating an unhealthy amount of fatty foods. I look forward to each meal and I tend to savor, rather than wolf my food, now.

As long as the scale keeps being good to me, I'll keep at it.

As I said before, I've been savoring each meal now. I put more thought into what I'm going to eat and when I sit down for supper with my family, we enjoy each other's company and talk about our days. We tend not to answer the phone or let anything interupt this time.

Yesterday, there was a knock on the door. I answered it. There were two large, middle-aged men. What follows is an abbreviated transcription of the conversation that took place.

"Are you Mike Reed?" asked one of them.

"Yes."

"Someone put your name on a prayer list at Belle Air Baptist Church so we came by to talk to you about Jesus." [I seem to recall my brother Scott mentioning a recent visit to Belle Air Baptist.]

"I'm actually in the middle of dinner with my family," I said.

"Oh, well have you ever attended a Baptist church?"

"Yes, several," I replied.

"Well, we have a Wednesday night meal out at Belle Air Baptist and you're welcome to come and . . ."

"I appreciate the invitation, really, but I . . ."

"Are you from here?"

"I'm from Shelbyville."

"Oh, do you know Calvin Kincaid?"

"No, I . . ."

"Kincaid Appliance Service?"

"I went to high school with his son, Mark."

"I've known Mark for a long time. I use to sell them appliances. . ."

"Yeah, he's a good guy, listen I . . ."

"Do you know Whit Taylor?" [former Vanderbilt football star, had a brief professional career and currently serves as football coach at Shelbyville Central High School].

"I know of him. My wife used to teach with him at La Vergne. Look . . ."

"Oh, so your wife's a teacher?"

"Yes. Look, I appreciate you taking the time to come out here and talk to me, but my supper is getting cold. I know where Belle Air is and I appreciate the invitation . . ."

"Well, look, take these tracts and if you ever need to talk to someone, you're welcome to come by. We're a big church, but it's just regular folks."

"Thank you. It was nice meeting you. Good bye."

I went back to the table and poked at my cold supper. As the microwave spun my food around, I began figuring out which lists I can sign up Scott for that will ensure he, too, gets a friendly visit from well-meaning yokels during supper.

In the wake of Katrina, Congress passed a bill detailing the minimum requirements for becoming the head of FEMA. The bill passed both houses and Bush signed it. The law lays out two requirements:

1. The president must nominate someone with experience in emergency managment.

2. The president must nominate someone with five years experience in executive leadership.

That doesn't seem like too much to ask does it? Within hours of signing the bill into law, Bush issued another of his infamous signing statements saying he can ignore the new restrictions if he wants to.

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Oct. 6, 2006

There has been some lively discussion in the comments recenlty about whether Foley is technically a pedophile. I'm willing to concede that he isn't, since all evidence suggests that he's approached 16- and 17-year-olds. So, he's not into pre-pubescent boys. He is, however, into minors, which is a still very creepy.

Some arguments have been made that, since age of consent in D.C. is 16, what Foley did wasn't illegal. I'll concede that point as well. But there are two additional points to consider: the age of consent in Florida is 18 and Congressman Foley was using his office and power to attempt to seduce teenagers under his supervision if not employ.

Ultimately, Foley is beside the point. He's no long a member of Congress and thus they have no power over him. If he faces any criminal charges, they will come from the state of Florida. The focus now is on why it was allowed to go on for so long as an open secret in Washington.

If the pages were being warned to watch out for Foley for years, then the GOP leadership must have known something was fishy there. Foley had a gift for fundraising and a getting reelected, so if appears the people in charge of keeping the kids safe adopted their own "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

I mentioned in the last post that Drudge claimed that one set of Foley IMs was just a prank that got out of hand. ABC disputed the story and now the page in question has, through his lawyer, called the Drudge story a "work of fiction."

The Foley Five are falling. Congressman Tom Reynolds has fallen behind his Democratic challenger, Jack Davis by 8 points. That's significant because this is the first poll to come out since the Foley scandal broke and before that, Reynolds ahead.

Interesting take from Alicu:

when you work for, and identify yourself with, a bunch of homo-hatin', sex-averse moral scolds, it's freaking hilarious when you're caught stroking it to male teeny talk. That's why the "B-b-b-b-but Gerry Studds" rejoinder doesn't work. We're Democrats -- we have to get laid constantly, by whomever or whatever is available. It's in our DNA, like treason.

Evidently, things aren't going smoothly over at Corker HQ. The loud-talker down the hall just spent 20 minutes on the phone screaming at some techie about a 500 MB file that he's been waiting for someone to post to the FTP site for three days.

From what I can gather, it is a video of Corker that he wants to see so he can get some feedback on how he looks on television ahead of the debate this Sunday. The guy keeps yelling, then apologizing, then yelling again about how nobody on the other end of the phone is being proactive. Heh.

When he hung up, he got another call and had to relate to this caller what a terrible time he's having with the previous caller. It's all very entertaining.

Now Drudge has been shown to be an idiot, what say the people who have been running with this story, such as James Dobson, Daniel Henniger and Michael Savage?

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Oct. 5, 2006

Hastert is toast. He probably won't resign before the election, but he's out of the GOP leadership next Congress. He's lost support and his attempts to blame Democrats and the media just sound desperate and tired. Word is he insisted on firing Reynolds' chief of staff (who used to work for Foley) as a way to divert blame, but the guy, Kirk Fordham, says he warned Hastert's office about Foley three years ago.

Hastert claims that isn't true, but he also says he doesn't remember being told a few months back about the emails, either. Now he's skipping out on interviews in which the host isn't a conservative sympathiser.

The stories keep shifting as various members of the leadership point fingers and play CYA.

Bill O'Reilly, who prides himself with being such a hard case when it comes to judges, journalists and other s who he feels aren't tough enough on child predators, has been very critical of Foley, but not of the GOP leadership. On his show two nights ago, he identified Foley as a Democrat. The rebroadcast was scrubbed of the reference, but no correction was issued.

The AP identified both Foley and Hastert as Democrats, but at least they issued a correction.

Rush Limbaugh, on his show two days ago, was "just thinking out loud" when he theorized that the pages may have been paid off by Democrats to set Foley up. How is this guy still on the air?

The rightwing pundits, Hastert and other GOP leaders have all speculated that the original source of the emails was a Democratic operative. Sean Hannity even named John Avarosis of AmericaBlog.com. But according the Hill, it was a long-time Republican.

And if you've been paying attention to how these stories play out, you knew more former pages would show up. Now one has come forward and said Foley was IMing him 10 years ago. A rumor currently being investigated says that Foley showed up at the Pages dorm drunk one night and was turned away.

The House Ethics Committee is convening today in special closed-door session to discuss how best to handle the Foley matter.

My office is right next to a studio that has been home to a number of businesses. The acoustics of the hall and the loudness of the people inside means that I hear everything being said.

Right now, two men are discussing a re-design of Bob Corker's web site.

"We need it to look not so Republican."

"We want it to convey the message that you have a choice: one man who has spent a career solving complex problems and working to help people or this good-looking hot man from Washington/Hollywood who would rather be at a Playboy party than legislate. I mean this guy has had more junkets than [inaudible] and Hillary Clinton combined."

If this is their strategy, Corker is doomed.

The House Ethics Committee will open an investigation into Foleygate. Hastert has announced that he is looking for someone of "high calibre" to lead a House investigation as well. Congressman Ray LaHood believes there will be more disclosures of other politicians who have been playing jailbait grabass with the pages.

So there's this guy in Denver named Steve Howards. Last summer, he was walking his 7-year-old son to piano practice when he saw Vice President Cheney speaking with a crowd of people. Howards approached Cheney and, standing 3-5 feet away, told him that his policies in Iraq were reprehensible.

Ten minutes later, Howards was stopped by a member of the Secret Service, asked if he'd "assaulted" the vice president, and then cuffed and shipped to county jail. The charges were later dropped, but Howards has filed a lawsuit, claiming (and rightly so) that he was arrested for exercising his first ammendment rights and that the arrest violated his fourth ammendment rights.

I say more power to him. I also say that Cheney needs to be openly challenged at every public appearance.

Now the FBI is lying to reporters about why they didn't investigate Foley earlier?

From Fox News:

WASHINGTON — House Republican candidates will suffer massive losses if House Speaker Dennis Hastert remains speaker until Election Day, according to internal polling data from a prominent GOP pollster, FOX News has learned.

"The data suggests Americans have bailed on the speaker," a Republican source briefed on the polling data told FOX News. "And the difference could be between a 20-seat loss and 50-seat loss."

Three more pages have contacted ABC. Drudge [I'm not linking to that piece of crap] is reporting that one of the sets of IMs that ABC News released are actually part of an elaborate prank that got out of hand. Drudge says that the page (who was outed by a conservative web site and is now afraid this will ruin his political career) goaded Foley into having a sexually suggestive IM conversation and then shared the transcripts with some friends.

Here's the thing. The page has been named. In the process, he's been outed. Now he's claiming that the whole thing was a big joke. Well, sure. He's got a career to think about. He protests that he's not really gay. But when he was anonymous and ABC was verifying these IMs, he didn't say any of this. Drudge's reportage is questionable here (as always).

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Oct. 3, 2006

Former Congressman Mark Foley has pretty much handed his seat to the Dems in November. The irony is that if Hastert and Boehner had acted back when they first found out about this, they could have dropped Foley and replaced him with someone who had a shot at keeping the seat.

But that would have cost the party money where they hadn't planned on spending any. Now it's too late. Foley's name must remain on the ballot, even though the votes cast for him will go to the replacement. To vote for the GOP candidate, you have to vote for Foley.

Conservatives, to their credit, are calling on Hastert to resign: Bay Buchanan, The Washington Times and Michael Reagan have all said Hastert needs to step down.

From the WaPo:

Republicans are bracing for ads that link previous scandals with the Foley case and ask, "Had enough?" Several strategists said this could be devastating in tight races. The most optimistic scenario offered by GOP strategists is that no new information surfaces and the controversy ends in the next five weeks.

Republicans have designated state Rep. Joe Negron as the substitute candidate in Florida's 16th District, even as Boehner and others denigrate his prospects.

Republicans say they are in grave danger of losing the seat of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (Tex.), as well as those held by Rep. Robert W. Ney (Ohio) -- who agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges in the investigation into the activities of convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- and Rep. Don Sherwood (Pa.), who has been embroiled in a scandal over an affair.

In addition, Republicans have largely given up on holding the seat of retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (Ariz.), and strategists are pessimistic about retaining open seats in Colorado and Iowa and the seat now held by Rep. John N. Hostettler (Ind.).

Some Republicans also said Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.), the NRCC's chairman and one of the GOP leaders who knew about a non-graphic communication between Foley and a former page, could face an even tougher challenge for his Buffalo area seat. Reynolds and Hastert sniped at each other over the weekend about who knew what and when.

Uh-oh. ABC News is reporting that they're getting all kinds of reports from former pages about inappropriate conduct from other members of Congress.

Also, Boehner, who said he talked to Hastert, then said he didn't talk to Hastert about it, now says he did indeed talk to Hastert.

Flying below the media radar are the revelations in Bob Woodward's new book State of Denial. Now, I'm not a Woodward fan. I think some of his previous works have been horribly slanted. So, I cannot take what he's written at face value.

That being said, what he has written is pretty devastating -- not the least of which is the assertion at George Tenet had a meeting with Condoleeza Rice on July 10, 2001 to warn her in the starkest possible terms that al Queda was planning an attack. The book says that Rice listened, but Tenet walked away feeling Rice had blown it all off.

Rice first said she had no memory of the meeting and that it was "incomprehensible" that she would ignore such a dire warning. But White House records show the meeting did take place.

Rice's spokesperson said that the information in the meeting was nothing new (which, if you'll recall, was exactly what she said about the Aug. 9 PDB titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack U.S."). He also said that she told Tenet to give the same briefing to the DOJ and DOD. But if there was nothing new there, why repeat the briefing?

And while people who prepared the brief called it a 10 out of 10 on the urgency scale and that the overall tone was "scary," Rice and Ashcroft both say the meeting was no big deal.

Bob Corker fired most of his campaign staff over the weekend and moved his campaign headquarters to Nashville. He's blown his double-digit lead over Ford and is now trailing (though only very slightly) in what has turned out to be a surprisingly tight race. Both parties are spending money on ads in the state. I caught one from the Democrats which hammers Corker because he runs ads about border security and immigration reform, but his construction company hired illegal workers.

What's with all the Republican flip floppers? Just yesterday, Frist was in the news calling for the Afghan government to incorporate the Taliban. Now Frist says what he meant to say was the U.S. doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

I had a big client meeting this morning in which I had to be in Nashville at 7:30 a.m. This requires me to leave my house about 6 a.m. This requires me to get up about 5:30 or so. The boss is on vacation this week, so I'm handling this myself.

I opened my eyes this morning and the clock said 7:40 a.m.

AAAAARRRRARRARARRRRGGHH!!!!

I got up and paced around the room in a panic. WhatdoItdo? WhatdoIdo? WhatdoIdo? Do I call the client? Do I call the office? AAAAARRRRRAAAAGGHH!!!

I pick up my cellphone in a panic and start punching at the keyboard to send an email to a coworker, letting her know what an idiot I am. The panic is really getting to me now. I'm pulling on my socks, pants, looking for a clean shirt. I'm screaming at Dollie to pack me a lunch so I can get on the road.

Skip shower. Skip breakfast. Skip shaving. Skip brushing teeth. Just get dressed and on the road. AAAAAARRRRARAAAARRGGGGHHH.

I can't get the email to go because I constantly mistype my coworker's email address. I try it three times and mess something up each time. I feel like crap. I look worse. I'm late late late late late. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGHHHHBBBBBEEEEEP

BEEEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP.

Aaaand my alarm goes off. I wake up in a cold sweat. Never have I been so happy to see 5:30 a.m.

The hits just keep on coming. ABC News says Foley interrupted his vote in the House on providing supplemental funds for Iraq to have cybersex with a congressional page. He also seems to have supplied alcohol to kids at his home.

Of course there are those on the right who would rather blame ABC and the original source of the email, than Foley and the GOP leadership. But that doesn't take into account the fact that Congressman Reynolds lent his chief of staff to Foley to help him navigate this scandal and that the staff in question, Kirk Fordham tried to cut a deal with ABC. ABC could have an exclusive interview with Foley, who was about to resign, in exchange for not publishing the lurid IMs.

Back home, in an effort to keep reporters from asking uncomfortable questions, Congressman Reynolds held a press conference using children as props.

Ah, but according to Hastert, the Foley scandal is just a big liberal conspiracy to get him.

Hmmm, Fox News had copies of the Foley emails, but chose not to run them.

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Oct. 2, 2006

The bewitching season has begun. Rozzy has already picked out her Halloween costume. She will be Cinderella. This should come as no big shock to anyone who knows her, because her closet is filled with dress-up "princess stuff."

She's become quite the little girly girl. We went to Old Navy last week to pick out an outfit for her school photos. Dollie chose a nice dress with a shrug. It was cute. Rozzy rolled her eyes and said "no." She pointed to a more flashy dress that was way too small for her.

An argument ensued and I broke it up by saying "Rozzy, it's this dress or nothing."

"FINE!" she yelled and jerked the dress out of Dollie's hand. Up until that point, Dollie was really looking forward to having a little girlfriend to go shopping with. This peek into her teenage years was . . . disturbing.

Another of Rozzy's favorite things to do is try on shoes. If we're in a store with a shoe department, there's nothing for it but Rozzy has to try on a pair of shoes. It would be funny, if it weren't so stereotypical. On this occasion, however, we were looking for her some new boots. Rozzy likes to wear boots when it gets cold and she needed a new pair.

She picked out a pair of brown, leather zip ups with Hello, Kitty on them. She stomps around and calls them her "bossy boots." When she wears them, I have to make sure Dollie pushes the grocery cart so I don't accidently get nutted by my own daughter.

Max and Dollie are bonding over Super Mario Bros. They've been team playing the game on Max's Nintendo DS. It's cute. Plus, it's filled the house with the videogame music of my youth . . . and my young adulthood.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla) resigned from Congress on Friday when it came to light that he'd been engaging congressional pages in inappropriate communications. Specifically, he was sending 16-year-old boys, lurid emails and IMs. This morning, Tony Snow was on CNN trying to minimize the scandal by calling them "naughty emails."

But if you read the transcripts, as I have (but don't recommend you do), you'll see that this went beyond what the congressional leadership called "overly friendly." These are explicit conversations between a congressman and children.

Now there are some things aside from the obvious that really bother me about this. For example, ABC News reported that congressional pages have been warned about Foley as far back as five years ago -- I should clarify that: REPUBLICAN pages were being warned as far back as five years ago.

That's one of the really creepy aspects of all this. If you look at the timeline, you see that GOP leaders knew about it and hid it from the one Democrat that sat on the Page Board. Oh, and the one woman on the board.

Speaker Hastert, after claiming he knew nothing about it, admitted the GOP leadership was told about this months ago. Yet, they did nothing about it. Now, Hastert calls on the FBI to investigate. The letter is worded in such a way as to differentiate between the "overly friendly emails" and the sexually explicit IMs. This will help keep Hastert's butt out of the hot seat. Maybe.

White House Counseler Dan Bartlett said the GOP leadership were acting "aggressively." Feh.

Brit Hume compared Foley with Clinton, saying that, while Foley is disgraced, Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky didn't affect his standing with the party. But Lewinsky was an adult in a consensual affair. Foley, who was head of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, was making unsolicited and unwanted advances at young boys.

Gingrich actually said that the Congress couldn't investigate Foley without being charged with gay bashing.

What is it about Republicans and their tendency to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia? You don't investigate Foley for being gay, you investigate him for being a pedophile.

Now Foley has checked himself into rehap and issued a statement saying it was the demon rum that made him a pervert. He'll learn quickly that the first thing they're going to want him to do is take responsibility for his actions. I mean really, booze made Mel Gibson an anti-semite, Foley a pedophile and Kennedy a womanizer. What can't that magic elixer do?

Foley is ill. He needs help. We cannot blame him for being ill. But we can blame the GOP leadership in the House for covering this up and allowing Foley to have a leadership role in the congressional efforts to help missing and exploited children. We can blame the leadership for only warning Republican pages about the dangers. We can blame the leadership for not getting Foley the help he needed.

Democrats and at least one Republican are calling on Hastert and Boehner to quit.

And the stuff keeps trickling out. ABC is now reporting that emails from Foley suggest he was trying to meet up with some of these young boys. Also, since Foley's PAC was a huge moneymaker for GOP candidates, there is a scramble by Republicans to give away the Foley money. That's another thing. Foley has a $2.7 million war chest. When Rep. Reynolds, who heads the National Republican Campaign Committee confronted Foley about the early emails (back in May, I believe) Reynolds was mollified by Foley's denials and a $100,000 contribution to the NRCC from Foley's PAC.

Now that Foley is out of commission, Reynolds is trying to get his hands on the rest of the $2.7 million.

Wow. Tom Cruise is a tiny, tiny man.

Hastert held a meeting today to discuss ways to protect congressional pages. Funny thing, though, he didn't invite the one Democrat who sits on the Page Board. Instead of treating this scandal as a legal or ethical or even a safety issue, the GOP leadership is treating is as a partisan, political problem. Shame on them.

Bay Buchanan on the side of the angels on this one.

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